12 May: Black Day / Karachi on fire!

12 May 2007, “Black Day” was the title given by the people of Pakistan while the dictator of that era titled it as “People’s Power Show”, Unbelievable? Believe It!

It was the morning when chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who was dismissed by the dictator president and chief of army staff Musharraf was coming Karachi to attend a conference for the restoration of the judiciary. There were some parties were coming to support the cause they were holding rallies while some parties were organizing rallies for some other matters, the venue was almost same. A massive clash started between some parties soon began in which free use of weapons was seen, the Shahrah e Faisal was closed from all sides for security purpose of the rallies (or for some other reasons) there was no way left to run, there was a major clash in which more than 50 people were killed, the gunmen do their job the whole day without any fear while the police and rangers were out of the scene. The criminals holding weapons fearlessly, weapons were being supplied continuously in cars, some government number plate cars has also been seen doing the same job that day, the media started showing the scene as on that day many media personnel were out there for the coverage of rallies they hid themselves and started to film the lawbreakers which was shown live on the news channels, due to this reason some gunmen started to fire at the building of the news channel which was covering the scene and showing the faces of the gunmen.

The interesting thing, the video recorded by the channels showing the gunmen also showing the party flags affixed on their vehicles in this way the news channel viewers also came to know that to which parties they actually belong.

The day passed, next morning a flag march was organized by the rangers visiting the affected areas. The political parties and the leaders started to blame each other while on the other hand claiming the affiliation of the deceased men with their parties. They were demanding that the responsible should be punished. Some parties still showing different figures of their workers died every time.

Every year when 12 May come, there might be mourning in the homes of those who were deceased but still the administration is not taking any action, the government compromised on the issue and the chief justice of Supreme Court is silent on this topic. Today it’s 12 May 2012, six years passed, but the relatives as well as a normal person of Karachi are still looking forward to the government, administration and judiciary for the justice.